Cyber Defense Advisors

Year: 2024

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  • January 12, 2024

Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid from Newfoundland in the 1800s

Interesting article, with photographs. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Read my blog posting guidelines here. Tags: photos, squid Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.  

Cyber News
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  • January 12, 2024

Nation-State Actors Weaponize Ivanti VPN Zero-Days, Deploying 5 Malware Families

As many as five different malware families were deployed by suspected nation-state actors as part of post-exploitation activities leveraging two zero-day vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) VPN appliances since early December 2023. “These families allow the threat actors to circumvent authentication and provide backdoor access to these devices,” Mandiant said in an analysis published […]

Cyber News
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  • January 12, 2024

Medusa Ransomware on the Rise: From Data Leaks to Multi-Extortion

The threat actors associated with the Medusa ransomware have ramped up their activities following the debut of a dedicated data leak site on the dark web in February 2023 to publish sensitive data of victims who are unwilling to agree to their demands. “As part of their multi-extortion strategy, this group will provide victims with […]

Cyber News
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  • January 12, 2024

Applying the Tyson Principle to Cybersecurity: Why Attack Simulation is Key to Avoiding a KO

Picture a cybersecurity landscape where defenses are impenetrable, and threats are nothing more than mere disturbances deflected by a strong shield. Sadly, this image of fortitude remains a pipe dream despite its comforting nature. In the security world, preparedness is not just a luxury but a necessity. In this context, Mike Tyson’s famous adage, “Everyone […]

Cyber News
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  • January 12, 2024

Urgent: GitLab Releases Patch for Critical Vulnerabilities – Update ASAP

GitLab has released security updates to address two critical vulnerabilities, including one that could be exploited to take over accounts without requiring any user interaction. Tracked as CVE-2023-7028, the flaw has been awarded the maximum severity of 10.0 on the CVSS scoring system and could facilitate account takeover by sending password reset emails to an […]

Cyber News
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  • January 12, 2024

On IoT Devices and Software Liability

New law journal article: Smart Device Manufacturer Liability and Redress for Third-Party Cyberattack Victims Abstract: Smart devices are used to facilitate cyberattacks against both their users and third parties. While users are generally able to seek redress following a cyberattack via data protection legislation, there is no equivalent pathway available to third-party victims who suffer […]

Cyber News
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  • January 12, 2024

Cryptominers Targeting Misconfigured Apache Hadoop and Flink with Rootkit in New Attacks

Cybersecurity researchers have identified a new attack that exploits misconfigurations in Apache Hadoop and Flink to deploy cryptocurrency miners within targeted environments. “This attack is particularly intriguing due to the attacker’s use of packers and rootkits to conceal the malware,” Aqua security researchers Nitzan Yaakov and Assaf Morag said in an analysis published earlier this […]

Cyber News
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  • January 12, 2024

Act Now: CISA Flags Active Exploitation of Microsoft SharePoint Vulnerability

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a critical security vulnerability impacting Microsoft SharePoint Server to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. The issue, tracked as CVE-2023-29357 (CVSS score: 9.8), is a privilege escalation flaw that could be exploited by an attacker to gain administrator privileges. Microsoft […]

Cyber News
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  • January 11, 2024

Threat Actors Increasingly Abusing GitHub for Malicious Purposes

The ubiquity of GitHub in information technology (IT) environments has made it a lucrative choice for threat actors to host and deliver malicious payloads and act as dead drop resolvers, command-and-control, and data exfiltration points. “Using GitHub services for malicious infrastructure allows adversaries to blend in with legitimate network traffic, often bypassing traditional security defenses […]

Cyber News